


It's a Long Night

by Wubc



Category: Persona 3, Persona 5, Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth
Genre: Fluff, Gen, I just want these two to talk, Late Night Conversations, No Spoilers, not really shipping but you can interpret it that way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 06:14:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30135234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wubc/pseuds/Wubc
Summary: Minako couldn’t sleep, that was normal. What was not normal was for someone else to be awake.Set during Persona Q2.
Relationships: Akechi Goro & Arisato Minako
Comments: 1
Kudos: 20





	It's a Long Night

It was eerily silent in the movie theatre. With everyone else asleep the near constant buzz of activity that permeated the area was completely absent. Minako was unsure what had kept her up so late. Maybe her sleep schedule was different compared to everyone else cause she’s from another dimension? Maybe, it was this pressing feeling of loneliness she studiously ignored. Who knows? Walking through the empty hallways was relaxing in a way though. She loved the others, but spending some time just walking around the theatre was surprisingly therapeutic. It was funny, walking in this area she had been trapped in for so long and still noticing new things about it, a slight scuff on the carpet there, an intricate pattern on the walls not noticed before, little things like that.

She took a seat at one of the booths outside the food station. After a few of the boys had undertaken some kind of eating contest, the floor was a complete mess in here. Popcorn was strewn around the area haphazardly and there was a sticky area near her feet where someone must have spilled a soda. Minako wondered if this place had ants. Well if it didn’t before then it does now. Is that even possible here though? Do animals like insects even exists in cognitive worlds? Minako didn’t think she’d seen a bug in Tartarus. She was suddenly amused by the image of a bunch of miniature coffins appearing during the Dark Hour. 

It was then that she realized she wasn’t the only one awake.

Footsteps, slightly muffled by the carpet could be heard approaching from down the hall. Minako stiffened. She knew it should be expected that someone else could be awake, but still, it felt like some private moment was being interrupted. 

When she saw who emerged from the corridor, she couldn’t say that she was relieved. The second detective prince apparently (she could hardly wrap her head around there being one) who looked for all the world dead tired. It was quite unlike how he’d presented himself during battle or conversations. 

Minako had always prided herself on being an open-minded person, willing to listen to any problem and overlook any flaw to get to the core of a person, but something about Akechi just didn’t sit right with her. From the day she first arrived here she couldn’t help but feel unnerved by his presence. Maybe it way his smiles seemed too wide or the way his posture never seemed to falter or relax, even when they weren’t fighting shadows. He had seemed all too fake to Minako.

But now seeing him here at who knows what time of night (does night even exist here?) she almost couldn’t recognize him. Dark circles ran below his eyes and small splotches of freckles and acne dotted his skin. His hair was disheveled, and his expression was of a man ready to murder his wife and run off with the settlement money (maybe she had been watching too many crime dramas). He seemed to be looking for something by the food stand, walking over and shuffling the empty popcorn buckets with no shortage of disgust. 

She was half tempted to sneak up behind him and give him a good spook, but for some reason she had a feeling that would not go over well for either of them. Instead she quietly muttered a hopefully polite “Good Morning.”

It seems her mission of not scaring him failed as he rapidly turned around to face her, butter knife held menacingly out in front of him. Upon noticing her, he lowered his stance and slowly his posture morphed into one she was more used to seeing, back straight and eyes closed with a dazzling smile. 

“Ah, I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there. You’ll have to excuse my behavior, I’m not much of a morning person.” 

Then why in good heaven are you awake right now dear sir? 

“It’s no biggy! I am surprised to see you awake, didn’t everyone go to sleep not that long ago?”

There was a slight twitch in the smile Akechi presented to her. He scanned her with a clinical gaze. She suddenly felt like her motivations and life story were under heavy scrutiny. She was half convinced that murderous look she saw earlier would return. 

“I assure you I went to sleep before many of them did. You’ll have to excuse me, I am normally an early riser, my sleep schedule can be a bit of a bother.”

Minako thought it sounded masochistic. Who wakes up early if they are not a morning person? Also, she knows that he’s lying cause she’s pretty sure she saw him in that corner talking with the other detective prince not that long ago so he couldn’t have gotten more than a couple hours of sleep. With the way he was looking earlier, Minako was starting to wonder if he got any sleep at all.

A pang of empathy shot through her. Maybe the reason Akechi seemed so odd to her was because he was perpetually sleep deprived?

“Well if your awake now we could hang out or something.”  
  
Akechi looked at her as if she had grown a second head.

“Why would we do that?” He asked slowly, suspicion lacing his voice. 

Minako pulled her knees to her chest rocking her head side to side.

“Well it’s not like there’s much else to do. Everyone else is still asleep and we can’t go into the movie worlds without them.”

Akechi still stood by the food counter, an unreadable expression on his face. 

Minako gave him a small wink. “C’mon I’m not that scary, am I?” 

Akechi turned towards the counter behind him. “Well, I was hoping to find some kind of coffee pot back here, but so far no luck. Honestly do people not know how to clean up their own messes?” He seemed to mutter the last part to himself thinking Minako wouldn’t hear. He really must be tired.

“I can help you look, there’s the whole storage room in the back that has to have something right? We can check there.”

Akechi looked down at the filthy counter seemingly contemplating his options.

“I suppose that does sound more productive, go on lead the way.”

Minako internally congratulated herself. It seems her seductive charms were still as sharp as always. 

Upon entering the storage room together, Minako had not realized the magnitude of the task she had suggested. The storage room was a lot bigger and a lot more cluttered that she remembered, stacks upon stacks of boxes, old film reels, and equipment littered the room. Akechi seemed rather unphased, walking past Minako straight into the room to start searching one of the boxes near the top. Not wanting to uselessly stand around she grabbed the next closest box, carefully pulling it down so she could examine its contents.   
They continued like this for quite a while, silently opening boxes and shuffling around old equipment to search. It was in this time that Minako got a closer look at the man. She noted just how differently he seemed to act compared to what she normally saw. While his actions and mannerisms seemed to emulate that calm collected detective prince persona, there was a rough edge around it all, stilted and more unnatural than usual. The heavy bags under his eyes really seemed to seal the image for her. Minako noted he was much easier to read in this state, the obvious frustration in his eyes when he found another empty box or the slight curiosity for some of the odder trinkets he came across. It was almost endearing. 

“You look better tired.” The statement came unbidden from her mouth. Maybe she was getting a bit tired as well. 

Akechi looked up from the box he was searching through giving her one of the most incredulous looks she’s ever seen.

“Are you joking? You aren’t actually blind are you?” 

She giggled. His rude behavior seemed nothing like how he had been acting earlier, all prim and proper. 

“Nah I’m being serious. You’re less… stuck up looking.”

Again, there was that twitch in his face that lasted less than a second before he forced his face into a wide smile. 

“Is that so. Well, I’m sorry if I gave off that impression, that was not my intension.” 

Minako rolled her eyes at that. “Boo! Go bad to rude boy.” 

Akechi’s façade again broke to give her that same incredulous look. “Excuse me?” 

“You don’t notice? You keep switching from nice pleasant boy to rude boy. Normally you’re pleasant boy but that’s boring and kinda creepy. I like you being rude more, its funnier.” 

Akechi gave her an odd look. She couldn’t quiet decipher it though before his face settled down into a neutral expression, looking down at the box he was searching.   
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He said simply, not allowing room for further conversation. 

Minako continued searching the boxes in smug silence. She knew she was right and his refusal only put the last nail in the coffin. As they both continued looking though, she couldn’t help the uncomfortable thoughts that started working their way into her head. 

Why did Akechi act like this? Why did he hide himself so fervently? The only other person she knew that did this was Shinji, and he was sorta the opposite, pretending to be all mean and scary when he was actually a massive sweetheart but…

There was other things too weren’t there, that made her uncomfortable around Akechi. You don’t get eyebags like those from having just a few sleepless nights, Minako would know. 

“I can’t believe it…” 

Minako looked up from her woefully ignored box to see Akechi looking down into his like the answer to life itself was in there. 

As it turns out it might be as Akechi pulled out an ancient looking coffee machine. Huh, she didn’t actually think there would be one in here. 

They both walked back to the counter, Akechi heavily setting down the ancient looking contraption. 

“Geez how do you even run something like this?” Minako said as she looked around the machine. 

“Akira would likely know.” 

“Akira?”

“Ah yes my- uh, acquaintance. The one with a deep voice.”

“Oh, I know who Akira is, I just didn’t realize he knew how to work these kinds of things.”

“Yes, he seems to know a variety of odd skills doesn't he? I suppose he is a bit of an enigma that way...” 

Akechi wore a complicated expression on his face. Acquaintance, really? She thought they were closer. Granted she had only known them for a few days, she guessed it was on her for assuming anything. 

She looked down at the coffee maker. She liked the others well enough, they were all ridiculously kind to her, even if she looked like a complete weirdo knowing them when they didn’t know her. She thought she had at least developed some kind of real friendship with some of the new people she had met, like the Phantom Thieves and Investigation Team, but it had only been a few days. Minako probably didn’t even know them that well to be honest.

Looking at Akechi’s haggard face just reminded her of this. 

“Shit”

The sudden swear caught her off guard. Some prince he’s turning out to be.

“What is it?”

“I’m just now realizing there’s no point in a coffee maker if there are no beans.”

Akechi was leaning against the table now slowly sliding down until his head rested against the table. He then proceeded to very deliberately smack his forehead against the table. Minako couldn’t help it.

“Pfft.”

“What was that?” Akechi suddenly lifted his head up giving her a pointed glare.

“O-oh nothing.” Minako was loosing a desperate battle. 

“J-just, some detective you are.” Minako was lost in a fit of giggles. She didn’t know why she found this so funny, maybe she was becoming delirious with lack of sleep.  
Akechi’s ears turned a bright red.

“I- you didn’t notice either! Goddamnit now how am I supposed to- agh! This is the worst, the worst!” Akechi was now pacing the room hands thrown up in the air in anger. Minako was dying on the floor, her gut starting to hurt with how much she was laughing.

“Oh my god- oh my god stop. You’re killing me!” Tears were streaming down her face, maybe she really had lost it.

“Will you cut it out already! You’re going to wake up the others!” Akechi whisper yelled.

“Sorry sorry, just- I can’t believe I was scared of you.” 

Akechi stopped.

“What do you mean by that?”

His tone was accusatory, but Minako could barely notice as tears continued to stream down her face.

“Its just, I had you pegged all wrong. You just seemed so fake, and I guess it was fake, but there are no beans are there? We really fucked up.”

Akechi stood, walking a little closer.

“I mean of course there’s no beans right? It should’ve been obvious. But we both- ha- I guess we just wanted to feel awake again so bad we just forgot you know?”

Akechi continued to stare at her silently. Minako couldn’t stop. 

“And I guess that’s just how it is huh? Now we’ll both just be tired and useless tomorrow.”

Akechi sat down.

“They probably don’t want us around anyway. Akira hasn’t really put either of us in the party recently and I guess that might be cause there are more people now, but I don’t even know any of you so it makes sense if you don’t want me around-“

“Stop it.”

Minako shut up. She had stopped laughing by now. She closed her eyes.

“They don’t hate you if that’s what you’re trying to imply.”

She squeezed her eyes tighter. Her eyes felt wet and sore. 

“I know they don’t hate me, but-“

“No that’s it. They all fucking adore you. No one in there thinks you don’t fit in just because you don’t know them, they’re all too friendly for that.”

Minako put her head into her arms. 

“I know, but I can’t stop thinking like this.”

They were silent for a time, the only sound being the quiet humming of the refrigerator behind them. Minako didn’t know how she ended up like this. She felt raw, like at any moment her nerves would give and she would snap and that hollow feeling that rested in her chest continued to pulse. She was fine really; she knew she was just being stupid. No one hated her, they were all so nice even when she didn’t deserve it. But still, her thoughts felt so loud.

“I hate this time of night.” She finally admitted. “It’s too quiet.”

She heard Akechi shift next to her. 

“I suppose that’s why I like it.”

Minako looked up at Akechi. He was staring ahead at some unseen point far away. 

“The only person you have to face is yourself.”

Minako couldn’t understand Akechi. He made himself wake up at this ungodly hour and for what? Was that just a lie and he also couldn’t go to sleep or did he just want to punish his body like some masochist? Akechi looked so tired, it was almost horrifying. Up close Minako could see the way the flesh under his eyes seemed red raw and irritated and the dark circles that ran under them were a bruised blue-purple. Minako wondered idly if Akechi had somehow gotten into her foundation and used it to cover up in the mornings. It was strange that they, out of everyone, were the only ones awake right now. She guessed it was better than just wandering around alone.

“Maybe not that quiet.”

“What was that?”

“Nothing.” 

Minako sat up, wiping her face with the hem of her sleeve.

“Sorry about dumping all that on you. I think we both should just go to sleep for now.” She went to stand up but Akechi laid an arm on her shoulder. 

“Wait.”

Minako turned to look at the detective. He had a conflicted look on his face, like he was trying to find the words he wanted to say.

“You- I- fuck-“

Minako giggled. She wondered what the others would think if she told them just how bad of a mouth Akechi really had.

“Yes?”

“I-I find your company tolerable, if that’s worth anything to you.” He looked away, seemingly embarrassed.

Minako stared at the man. He was still clearly tired and angry, but it seemed like, for just a moment, she saw something under even that façade, something maybe, potentially, legitimately nice.

“Well Akechi,” she stood up fully. “I find your company ‘tolerable’ as well.” She exaggerated a posh accent, “I wouldn’t mind talking more at your convenience.” 

“I don’t talk like that.” Akechi deadpanned.

“Yes you do. Now let’s go to bed.”

“I told you I woke up not that long ago-“ 

“Yeah and I also have eyeballs and mine can see how tired you look so let’s get a few more Zs before we have to warm the benches tomorrow.”

The corner of Akechi’s mouth twitched. 

“Was that a smile?” Minako bent down hands behind her back, cheeky grin spreading across her face.

“Never.”

“Whatever you saaay.”

They walked back to the two theatres the others had designated to female and male sleep chambers. Minako looked back as Akechi entered the male’s.

“Hey,”

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first real attempt at fanfiction writing so if there are any problems please let me know! I think these two have so much potential together. It's a real shame that its not really explored too much.


End file.
